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Tara Thiagarajan Wants the Poor to Get More Out of Their Micro Borrowings
Tara Thiagarajan believes that microfinance institutions (MFIs) have been pursuing the wrong goal. Instead of scale, they should be looking to make loans more effective. That means borrowers should get more out of their borrowings. Along with credit, they should also get the tools and the benefits of a large network to make the most of the credit.
- Categories
- Education
- Region
- South Asia
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UN: Soaring Demands Will Add More Stress to World Water Supplies
Despite recent good news that millions more people now have access to potable water, a new report finds sharply rising demands for water threaten a myriad of development goals.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Tags
- scale
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Organic Farming Promises to Yield a Sustainable Future for India’s Rural Poor
Organic agricultural practices are improving prospects for India's farmers by providing greater profit and sustainability
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- South Asia
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What Went Wrong with Microfinance?
Long before “99%” became a symbol of Occupy Wall Street, the microfinance industry used the number to describe the share of its clients — poor entrepreneurs shunned by traditional banks — who repaid their micro-loans on time. It’s a number used less and less in microfinance these days — not because of Occupy Wall Street, but because many micro-borrowers are starting to default.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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For a New Highway, from Rio to Delhi
Brazil and India can benefit from each other's experience for an inclusive development agenda.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Citi Leads Investment in SJF’s New Fund
he team at SJF Ventures had to undergo federal background checks, submit fingerprints and provide 20 references each in order to obtain a license from the Small Business Administration for its new nationally focused impact investment fund, SJF Ventures III LP.The fund could be a potential new funding source for some start-ups with a social good focus.
- Categories
- Energy
- Tags
- renewable energy
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Selling to the World’s Poor Offers Huge Potential
It might seem counterintuitive, but setting your sights on the world’s four billion poorest people can be remarkably lucrative. Just ask Suneet Singh Tuli. The CEO of wireless-device manufacturer DataWind Ltd. says his Montreal-based company’s revenue could soar from less than $10 million last year to more than $300 million next year, thanks to the stripped-down tablet computer it developed to sell in India: “It’s an astonishing rate of growth.”
- Categories
- Technology
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N Sundaresha Subramanian: Why the SME Exchange Needs a Big Hand
For the third time in the Indian stock market history, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) now have a new platform to access funds from people other than friends and family in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) SME exchange that completed its first initial public offer (IPO) in February.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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